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Mike DeCourcey joins The Junkies to look at the Brendan Sorsby case and where college sports is headed.
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00:00to mike de courcy college sports journalist for the sporting news big 10 studio analyst as well
00:06and one of the junk's earliest guests way way back mike thanks for joining us man we appreciate it
00:12good morning guys how are you mike can you believe we're still on the air
00:18well i'm happy to hear that absolutely it's been a long journey for you guys it's really cool that
00:23you've uh lasted as long as you have well you too buddy yeah you're doing a good job too bro
00:28you too my friend so uh just kind of give us your reaction to soarsby winning this temporary
00:34restraining order against the ncaa and uh you know technically he can he'll be out for the first
00:40couple games temporary injunction i think it is right yeah but he uh yeah sorry and so now he's
00:47going to be out for the first couple games and but there's going to be some backlash but just give
00:52us your reaction on on the decision from this judge ken curry i don't think i can remember
00:59a verdict or ruling out of a court that astounded me more this was the the most obvious example
01:09that one could have of violating a rule that had a prescribed punishment and i mean this is this is
01:18not
01:19something that was in dispute brennan soarsby acknowledged having wagered on games involving
01:27the team of which he was a member when he was at indiana university playing football he acknowledged
01:36that in it i believe it was in the filing but he definitely has made it clear that that happened
01:41and the and the punishment for that is ineligibility and how like how does how does the judge decide
01:49two game suspensions enough i mean like what is that yeah there was never like it's not a what there
01:54was no either or here this this is the judge deciding that he knew more than the than the entire
02:02sports
02:03world because think about this this is pretty close to to standard punishment in every league or every
02:10competition in the entire sports world that if you bet on on your own sport you're in you're really in
02:21trouble and if you bet on your own team then you're really in trouble and for him to not basically
02:28get much
02:28of a punishment at all i think am i am i right like isn't one of the games he's going
02:32to miss like abilene
02:33christian yes that's the first game and oregon state is the second game i didn't even know abilene christian
02:38had football i mean that's you know i mean come on that's just so preposterous and the judge who did
02:45this should be ashamed uh it it it there's just no defense for it and it's one of the things
02:54i was
02:54on another show this morning where uh where i pointed out that of all the things that have ever
02:59happened in college sports teams trying to get away with this that or the other thing there almost
03:05always was a handful of teams or a significant number of teams that publicly or privately said
03:13well we kind of do that so i hope he gets away with it or hope they get away with
03:17it or whatever
03:17but in this case there's 138 teams in division one football there are going to be 137 that are on
03:24the opposite side of texas tech here hey mike doesn't it also make crystal clear that the ncaa like
03:32they just no longer have any power like because these players are just going to go to court they're
03:37going to find a favorable court or favorable judge that that's going to rule in their favor and whatever
03:42rules the ncaa has and tries to enforce they're just going by the wayside at this point well i mean
03:49i
03:49think there i think there's there's truth to that absolutely and that's one of the reasons why
03:54for a while now i mean i won't say that i always thought that paying the players with the
04:00or paying them overtly was the uh or the the right course to follow i had my questions but i
04:07came
04:07around over the years to understanding that the more money we got into this uh the more it was
04:13becoming problematic for it not to be the case but the the way to do this the proper way to
04:21do this
04:21instead of trying to install rules relative to compensation and work and essentially work rules
04:29the best way to do that is through negotiation i mean like let's just say this had happened in
04:34the nfl and we've seen players suspended for a year from the nfl for much lesser offenses than this right
04:40and let's say this but like the nfl player doesn't go to court because they are part of a collective
04:48bargaining unit that has a collective bargaining agreement and the rules of of participation
04:53are clearly established and if you did what soarsby has acknowledged he did if you did that as a member
05:02of an nfl team you'd be out because you are part of the collective bargaining unit and that's what
05:09college athletics needs and the authorities in college athletics as they did more than a decade ago
05:18relative to the o'bannon case which basically opened the door to name image and likeness
05:25payments they pushed that away they they fought against it then and instead of embracing it and
05:33trying to say okay how can we make this work for both sides then they pushed it down the road
05:39and
05:39ultimately the state courts unleashed what we have now so instead of this happening they should have been
05:46in collective bargaining discussions years ago and and one of the reasons why they should have done
05:53it years ago is because it's probably going to take years you got to find a bargaining unit you've got
05:58to find an agreement that works on both sides you got to make sure it works for all your membership
06:02which is a challenge and they might have to do some things structurally to make it work and all this
06:09could have been addressed or in the process of being addressed if it began in 2021 2022 especially by 23
06:16when this started to really fly and instead they keep pushing it well we want congress to act
06:22and congress is not going to be able to fix this again because the problems are so diverse in such
06:30a
06:30diverse membership how far are they just miles away from this collective bargaining agreement
06:36the naa well they're as far away from it as i am from the top of mount everest
06:43and the reason that i say it that way is because i'm never climbing mount everest guys
06:50it's never going to happen i have no interest in doing that me and no and no capacity to do
06:57that
06:57and that's basically where college athletics stands relative to collective bargaining they
07:02they not only haven't attempted to do it they have no interest in doing it
07:08so georgia and nebraska have come out and said all right we're so pissed off about this
07:12we're not going to play texas tech in any sport and i'm wondering if if this kind of snowballs
07:19and it goes beyond two schools it goes to 15 or 20 or 30 or 50 or or every other
07:25school
07:26isn't texas tech kind of forced to say sorry brennan you won this this deal but
07:31um you know we can't sacrifice the rest of our schools having no opponents or the rest of our
07:38sports having no opponents because of you uh is that possible i think it's i think there's some
07:44possibility there i remember the the ruling says that they can't they has to be a member of the team
07:51right but nobody can tell a coach who to play that you can't tell you there's no court at least
07:58not
07:58yet i mean i didn't ever i never saw this one coming either but there's no court that can tell
08:04the pittsburgh steelers that aaron rogers is 41 years old 42 years old and it's time i mean they
08:10they can't do that it's not how things work so they can say if aaron rogers has a contract with
08:17the
08:17steelers that he has to participate that he has to be paid and he has and and that he has
08:22to be a part
08:23of the organization but they can't force him to start at the at quarterback so in a much different
08:30situation i'm just using that as a scenario to show you what a court's limits are you can't you can't
08:38force the employee to be utilized in a certain way but you can because of a in this case in
08:47aaron's case
08:47an existing contract you can force the steelers to pay what he's owed in the contract and in the
08:54case of soarsby for much different reasons uh he can't he he's now it's now necessary that he be part
09:02of your team but there's no law that says he has to be your starting quarterback is there any chance
09:09these guys think i'm crazy but kind of as you alluded to earlier never being so outraged i don't know
09:16that
09:16i've ever seen such universal outrage yeah by a a ruling like this that if he has any people and
09:25i
09:25sure he does has some agents or some people business people and look he's potentially a maybe a third or
09:30fourth round draft pick in the supplemental draft that they say you know what you're this is such a
09:36stain on your legacy like you're going to be enemy number one you're the poster boy for all that's wrong
09:42and you're no one has your side that maybe your best move is to bow out gracefully and just say
09:49you know what i miscalculated i thought maybe this would kind of fly under the radar uh and then he
09:54just declares the draft and just salvages something i think that i think that if he did that i think
10:02you're
10:03right i think he could he could win some people over that way yeah i do think so and it
10:08might be
10:09positive for his professional football future right taking some responsibility there yeah in that
10:16sense i think you're right i think it it could be uh because it's not going to be a pleasant
10:22autumn
10:22it's only going to get worse it's not going to get any better i suppose if he were to be
10:29absolutely
10:30dominant i mean and i'm trying to think of a quarter like i mean way beyond what fernando mendoza was
10:37for instance this past year i mean like i'm trying to think of a quarterback like maybe back to rg3
10:42when
10:42he played something like that at baylor if you delivered that kind of dominance and that kind of
10:48superior performance people would just have to stop and say wow maybe but i i've seen i i i don't
10:55saw
10:55soarsby play a lot last year he's a very fine quarterback but i don't think he's that right so i
11:01don't i
11:02don't see that as a likely outcome i think it's more going to be mostly up some down in terms
11:10of
11:10performance and and an absolutely relentless experience from the media every week every time
11:19he plays everywhere he goes it's going to be relentless i'm telling you the best move for him
11:23at this point is to bow out gracefully yeah well the only backlash there mike is the his money from
11:30the nil which is five or six million dollars if he says i'm out i'm not going to take it
11:36i don't
11:36know why he would do that i don't think well because you're gonna because you can make nfl money
11:40and the longer term benefit is but not have this stigma attached to me but like mike said soarsby's
11:46not the number one pick in the draft no he's not yeah so there's no guarantee he's gonna make
11:50play there's no guarantee he's gonna make that five million in the nfl you're 100 right there there's
11:55no guarantee that he's gonna make it in a year right but like i said like like i said if
12:00if he
12:01did this it would be a opportunity to to to maybe get the nfl to see him rather than as
12:10problematic but
12:11as someone who has been through something difficult who is coming out the other side and who has taken
12:18responsibility for what he did and they might be more likely to embrace him as a player and remember
12:26you don't make five million dollars a year as a backup quarterback unless you've been at it for a
12:31while and you're really good at it but once you but if you do get to that position you are
12:37it's the
12:38best job in the world it's the little best job in the world it's a great job in the world
12:42and nfl
12:42backup quarterback think about all the if you're established in this day think about all the guys that
12:46like been in cars and killed people uh-huh you know what i mean like he's not that bad but
12:51this
12:51stigma is going to be so it's just going to be relentless it's bad get out of it start all
12:58over
12:58i think it's his best shot hey mike our producer threw this out earlier in the show any possible
13:04um penalty from the college football playoff committee let's just say texas techs eight no before
13:09the uh before the first playoff committee ranking or you know rankings come out and the cfp just says
13:16no you're not good enough we're not going to put you in the top 12 they go undefeated they still
13:20don't put them in the top 12 is that a possibility it's not beyond the realm of possibility but it
13:25would be it would probably fly in the face of what precedent says i mean a year ago when charles
13:31bediaco angered a lot of people in college sports by by going to court for eligibility after he had
13:38played in the g league and he had entered the draft and played in the g league he'd never played
13:43in the
13:43nba and i don't think he'd ever signed a actual i don't think he'd ever signed a contract to be
13:48in
13:48the nba uh as i recall but there were a lot of people angry about that and agitating for the
13:55ncaa
13:56men's basketball committee to not honor the games in which he played and they succeeded and ultimately
14:03i believe their position was that they would say uh that they would look at it the same as any
14:10other
14:10now the college football playoff committee is a little different i mean they're more independent
14:15in a sense in that the college football playoff is
14:20did we lose him seem like we lost connection oh is he there hold on still working on it
14:29efforting all these hasn't hey sorry mike we just lost you for a second yeah we lost you bud yeah
14:35okay and what i was saying is that when it was bediaco over just having uh played in the g
14:41league
14:41and he wanted to and he played a lot of people wanted uh those games to not count so to
14:48speak
14:48right and and any other games he might have been able to play but ultimately he was ruled ineligible
14:53by a higher court it so the ncaa men's basketball committee basically said no we're going to count them
15:01and what i the point i was going to make is that the college football playoff committee is more
15:06independent in a sense the the cfp is not an ncaa operation it's totally independent and so they could
15:15probably do pretty much whatever they want i mean once upon a time they kept an undefeated conference
15:19champion out so i think they could create some justification if they wanted they'd have to speak
15:26on this i think that they're they don't think they're in any hurry to do it because i think
15:31they'd want to see uh whether the ncaa tries to appeal this and those sorts of things before they
15:38make a judgment i'm sure it's something they would not want to have to do but if it gets to
15:44the point
15:45where source b is a regular player and appearing regularly and texas tech is succeeding they're going
15:51to have to confront that issue yeah this is not over yet this is definitely not over no got a
15:55long way
15:56to go here mike thanks as always for the time we definitely appreciate it's mike de course the
16:00college sports journalist for the sporting news and big 10 studio analyst thanks again good job
16:04mike thanks gentlemen yep of course uh coming up next as a wizards fan are you watching the scene at
16:10msg during the nba finals are you having foe mode do you think capital one arena could look like this
16:17in
16:17a few years if the rebuild goes correctly 800-636-1067 we'll discuss that next here on the fan
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